How to make a rented London flat feel like Christmas

Pines and Needles delivers real trees across London and, for a fee, will send someone round to put one up and dress it, which is the most useful single call you can make if you're spending Christmas in a rented apartment. Most of what follows can wait until you've landed, but the tree, the table and the plan for Christmas Day need sorting before you fly.

The tree, the wreath and the table

Pines and Needles has been London's best-known Christmas tree service for years, with outdoor pitches around town (Regent's Park is one) and a delivery and installation service that brings stands, lights and decorations. Order in November for delivery in the first half of December, and tell the residence first, because some buildings have rules about real trees and reception will want to know when a two-metre Nordmann fir is coming up in the lift. If you can't face the needles, ask whether the residence dresses its apartments for Christmas. Lots do, at least in reception and the common areas, and some will put a small tree in your flat on request.

Wild at Heart, the London florist, makes some of the best Christmas wreaths in town, dense and natural and heavy on dried citrus and eucalyptus rather than tinsel. They deliver across central London and run wreath-making workshops in December, including at Liberty. The cheaper and more fun option is Columbia Road Flower Market on a Sunday morning, where in the weeks before Christmas the stalls sell wreaths, holly, mistletoe and armfuls of eucalyptus alongside the usual flowers. Get there before 9am, because by eleven you'll be shuffling along in single file.

Fortnum & Mason on Piccadilly is where the Christmas food shopping starts, and for plenty of people where it ends. Hampers can be delivered to the apartment, and the food hall downstairs does the puddings, mince pies, Stilton and teas; the ground floor gets rammed from the second week of December, so go on a weekday morning. For the cheeseboard, walk a few minutes to Paxton & Whitfield on Jermyn Street, tell them how many you're feeding and they'll build it for you. After that, a few white pillar candles and some fir branches from Columbia Road will do more for a rented dining room than a bagful of shop-bought decorations.

Christmas Day itself

There's no Tube, bus or train in London on Christmas Day, and taxis are scarce and pricey, so decide early whether you're eating in or out. Eating out means booking in September or October, because every hotel dining room doing Christmas lunch sells out. Eating in with a private chef is easier for a family or a group, and it's where a serviced apartment really beats a hotel suite. Ask the residence whether they can arrange one; many can, but the good chefs are taken by early December.

• Check the oven size and how many the dining table seats
• Ask whether the kitchen has a roasting tin, a carving set and enough glasses
• Find out whether housekeeping runs on 25 and 26 December
• Order groceries for delivery by 23 December at the latest
• Book the chef, if you want one, by November

Dinner out, skating and A Christmas Carol

Berners Tavern at The London Edition, on Berners Street in Fitzrovia, has the most festive-looking dining room in the West End, with paintings covering the walls floor to ceiling, a ceiling that makes you look up twice, and a British menu that suits a group. Book well ahead for December. In Knightsbridge, The Lanesborough's restaurant is now The Lanesborough Grill, and the hotel does a festive afternoon tea through December. Over in Kensington, the old Launceston Place site reopened in 2025 as Sartoria Launceston Place, an Italian neighbourhood restaurant on one of the prettiest streets in W8.

Skate at Somerset House puts a rink in the Georgian courtyard off the Strand from mid-November into January. December highs stay in single figures and it rains on roughly a dozen days of the month, so wrap up; evening sessions sell out first, and a weekday morning is less crowded and better for children. Then there's The Old Vic's A Christmas Carol, Matthew Warchus's production, back every year from mid-November to early January. It ends with mince pies handed through the audience and snow falling in the stalls, and it's the one Christmas show grown-ups without children book for themselves.

Food hygiene ratings for the places in this guide

Official fact Food Standards Agency Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, checked 23 September 2026. 5 is the top rating.

Name	Registered address	Rating	Inspected
Paxton & Whitfield	93 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6JE	5	Oct 2025
The Lanesborough Grill	The Lanesborough, Hyde Park Corner, SW1X 7TA	5	Dec 2025

Ratings cover hygiene only, not food quality. Matched by name and address; a venue not shown was not found or could not be matched with confidence.

London weather by month

July is the warmest month, averaging 23°C by day. July has the fewest wet days (9) and October the most rain (80 mm). For sightseeing on foot, June scores best on our combined warmth-and-dryness measure.

Month	Avg high	Avg low	Rain	Wet days	Chance a 7-day stay sees a washout	Record high / low
January	8°C	2°C	74 mm	13	53%	16°C / -12°C
February	8°C	2°C	51 mm	10	43%	18°C / -8°C
March	11°C	4°C	45 mm	9	44%	23°C / -7°C
April	14°C	5°C	54 mm	10	44%	26°C / -3°C
May	17°C	8°C	54 mm	9	39%	30°C / -1°C
June	20°C	11°C	58 mm	9	35%	34°C / 2°C
July	23°C	13°C	52 mm	9	34%	34°C / 4°C
August	22°C	13°C	68 mm	9	37%	37°C / 4°C
September	19°C	11°C	62 mm	9	39%	29°C / 2°C
October	15°C	8°C	80 mm	11	47%	27°C / -2°C
November	11°C	5°C	76 mm	12	52%	18°C / -6°C
December	8°C	2°C	69 mm	12	50%	16°C / -8°C

Calculated NOAA GHCN-Daily observations at the Hampstead weather station, north London (records 1960–2015; averages from about 25 years per month). A wet day has 1 mm of rain or more.